


I Can Almost See You

by inmyrosegarden



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, ahhhh!!!!!! so much angst i swear, the nick in this is not grimmy lol idk i pictured nick hoult, this will be done before christmas :)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-02
Updated: 2014-12-02
Packaged: 2018-02-27 19:58:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2704685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inmyrosegarden/pseuds/inmyrosegarden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis loves opening his kindergarten classroom to student teachers. What he doesn’t expect though, is having to work with former popstar (and, as of recent, recluse) Harry Styles. Feelings and angst ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Can Almost See You

**Author's Note:**

> hello friends!! it’s been a while (lol). i thought of this idea in my own classroom, and i hope you all like it as much as i do! i know wips are hard to deal with, but i’ll try my best to update weekly and have this done before christmas. enjoy!!

“Louis! Angela won’t share the play dough cutters with me,” pouts Lucy from the table toys center.

 

Looking up from the book he’s reading with Jamie, one of his more advanced students, Louis raises his eyebrows at Angela and Lucy. “Girls, play nice. What did I say about complaining?”

 

Both girls look at Louis, matching frowns on their faces. “Complaining won’t get you anywhere,” they mumble simultaneously.

 

“Exactly,” Louis smiles. “So I think it’s time for Lucy to have a turn with the cutters, don’t you think Angela?”

 

The little girl nods in response, and pushes over the bucket of cutters to her friend. “Sorry, Luce.”

 

“I assept your ‘pology, not your actions,” Lucy states pointedly. “Thanks!” And just like that, they’re back to chatting like nothing even interrupted them in the first place.

 

Louis chuckles and looks around the rest of the room as Jamie continues reading. There are only two students in his whole preschool class who know how to read, and he knows they’ll ask him for help when they don’t know what a word is. He notes, while looking around, that the children in housekeeping are giggling as they dress up; there don’t seem to be any problems between them. As his eyes focus on the kids playing in block area though, he catches two boys fighting over a toy dinosaur.  

 

Patting Jamie on the back and motioning for him to keep reading, Louis holds one hand in the other behind his back and walks over to block area. “Excuse me,” he says in an even tone. “Can I please ask, just what in the world is going on here?” He sits down behind the two fighting boys, crossing his legs while he waits for them to turn around and face him.

 

Both boys--Desmond and Andy--look up at him with wide eyes once they’ve turned around. The toy falls to the ground with a quiet thud, and Louis takes that as a chance to pick it up.

 

“Are you quite alright, Mr. Dinosaur?” Louis asks the inanimate object. He then turns his head to raise his eyebrows at the boys, who are looking back at their teacher with confused expressions.

 

Putting the dinosaur in front of his face and pointing him towards the boys, Louis pretends to be the dinosaur as he exclaims in a silly voice, “Well actually, Mr. Louis, I feel like my legs and neck are about to fall off!”

 

Both boys giggle, and Louis puts the toy down. “We don’t want Mr. Dino to break now, do we?”

 

“No,” the boys chorus, looking guilty.

 

Louis hums. “Well then, let’s share him so he can live longer! Sound good?”

 

“Yes, Louis,” Desmond responds while Andy mumbles a quiet, “Okay.”

 

Winking at the boys, Louis stands up and walks back to the table where Jamie is sitting with his brows furrowed. “Everything okay, Jamie?”

 

“Um,” Jamie wonders, scratching his head. “I’m not sure what this word is?”

 

Louis sits on the table in front of the boy and holds out his hand for the book. Jamie stands up to be near his teacher, and once he has placed the book in Louis’ hand he points to the word that has so obviously puzzled him. Creature.

 

Louis taps his chin. “Ahh,” he nods. “A tricky one, no doubt. Let’s sound it out!”

 

“Cer-a--” the boy stop abruptly, crossing his arms and pouting. “No, that’s not right!”

 

“Hmm, let’s try it again,” Louis laughs. “It’s c like cat not cinnamon.”

 

Jamie focuses on the word, pointing at it again. “So is it--crea?”

 

“Yes, perfect!” Louis cheers. “Now finish it off.”

 

“Crea--tu-re. Creature!”

 

“Woohoo!” Louis laughs, holding up his hand for a high-five which Jamie returns happily as he beams. “Awesome, bud. So proud of ya! Now go put the book away and get your coat from the cubby so we can go outside.”

 

“Yay,” Jamie dances on the spot. Before Louis can even laugh at his adorable action, Jamie is running over to his cubby.

 

“Walk, please!” Louis calls out absentmindedly as he pushes his chair back over to his desk. After shuffling some papers around and trying to get a little organized, Louis claps his hands in an A-B-A-B-B rhythm to get everyone’s attention. Before he has even turned around, everyone’s mimicking the rhythm back to him. He smiles, loving that his kids have learned the class rules so early on in the year, as it’s only October.

 

His small smile turns into a full-on smirk when he tells them, “Let’s clean up so we can go outsiiiiiiide!”

 

From around the room, there are various Yaaaaays, and Louis can’t help but grin as he shrugs on his own peacoat. He just loves these kids a lot.

 

***

Later on in the day, after all the kids have put their lunches back in their backpacks and their cots have been pulled out, Louis has them line up to go to the bathroom.

 

“Louis, Jeremy stole my spot,” Anna whines, tugging on her teacher’s sweater.

 

Louis sighs and walks towards the chart paper that’s hanging on the wall next to his desk. “Well, let’s have a look, shall we? Today’s line leader is--Jeremy.” He looks back at Anna. “Darling, you’re number three in line, okay? That means you’re after--”

 

“Me,” Siya shouts, raising her hand. Anna giggles and moves to her spot behind the other girl.

 

Louis shakes his head. “Calmly next time, alright Siya?”

 

“Sorry, Louis.”

 

“It’s quite alright.” Walking back to his spot outside of the door, Louis mentally counts the number of kids he has. Thirteen, he thinks. One less than he had this morning since he had to send a very sick Scarlett home.

 

“Let’s put our fingers on our lips, boys and girls.” He demonstrates, and thirteen hands follow. “And quietly, let’s go use the bathroom.”

 

He leads the kids down the hall watching the six boys walk into the boys bathroom and the seven girls walk into the girls bathroom. As he waits for the children to line back up in front of him, Louis turns to peer in through the office windows. He waves at Perrie, the secretary, who smiles and waves back at him. Before he turns back around though, he notices two figures walking into the school through the front doors. One man is wearing a gray sweatshirt and a snapback, and he seems to be talking animatedly to the other man he is walking with. He doesn’t seem familiar, and before Louis can judge whether he knows the other man he hears someone cough in front of him.

 

Looking down in front of him, Louis sees that all thirteen of his students are waiting patiently for him. Smiling gently, he wiggles his fingers in the air. “Did everybody wash their hands?”

 

“Yes,” his students chorus.

 

Starting to walk next to the line, Louis calls out over his shoulder, “Wonderful! Now let’s go take a nap!”

 

He hears a couple of suspicious groans--which he laughs at, knowing that they’re coming from the only two children who have difficulty napping each day. Back in the classroom, each child’s bedding makes the room look even brighter and messier than it already is. As the children get comfy in their cots, Louis walks over to the circle time area where he keeps the stereo. Plugging it in, he searches the box of CDs for the classical music one he has, and then pops it in. Turning the volume down low, Louis sighs, feeling the tension in his shoulders dissipate as he relaxes a little. The next two and a half hours should be a piece of cake.

 

After turning the lights off, Louis plugs in the two night lights he keeps in his drawers on opposite sides of his room, just in case. The clouds don’t seem to be going anywhere, and with the blinds drawn, the room is nice and dark.

 

Finally seated at his desk, Louis pulls out his lunch and begins munching on turkey sandwich while he waits for Zayn to come relieve him for his planning period. Eating in silence, Louis remembers that today’s the day that his new student teacher is supposed to come meet with him. He smiles at the thought, hoping that he gets someone as diligent as Rebecca, his last student teacher.

 

As he eats, Louis rakes his eyes over the children napping on their cots. Most of them have nodded off by now, but even those who haven’t have got droopy eyes that suggest they’ll fall asleep any minute. He smiles at them, once again admiring how adorable they are, a part of him wishing that he has a child of his own one day soon.

 

From a young age, Louis had known that the one thing he wanted to do in life was to be a teacher. His mum reminds him all the time that when he was younger, he used to force the little kids from his neighborhood to sit in his garden while he taught them their ABC’s and told them bullshit stories about how he could tell time from looking at the sun. As much as he would get in trouble from keeping those kids in his garden until tea time (he really couldn’t tell time from the sun, he just wanted to keep teaching the kids), his mum--and the other mums from the neighborhood--let him do as he pleased because they were so endeared by how much he genuinely enjoyed “teaching” those kids.

 

When he got some little siblings of his own, there was nothing Louis enjoyed more than coming home from school and helping them work on their homework and teaching them how to do even the most trivial things, like tying their shoes. Now he has the real deal; a classroom all to himself. All those painful hours of boring lectures and difficult placements that drove him too close to his breaking point finally paid off. These days, he’s the one guiding uni students through their placements; though he tries his best to make sure they’re using the right methods and handling the students well, he makes sure that they’re comfortable enough teaching with him that they have room to learn and improve themselves.

 

Sighing, Louis puts his leftovers back inside his backpack. When he stands up to throw away his trash, Louis hears a quiet knock at the door. Knowing that it’s Zayn waiting for him, Louis smiles as he opens the door. It is, as he expected, his friend and coworker standing on the other side of the door, but noticing the smirk on Zayn’s face has Louis release an uncomfortable chuckle.

 

“Hey, Lou,” Zayn laughs, smirk only increasing in size. Zayn tilts his head, searching his friend’s face for something. Whatever he’s looking for, Zayn doesn’t seem to find it in Louis’ expression, so he shakes his head. “Any idea who your new student teacher is?”

 

Louis’ expression becomes even more confused. “Er, no? Am I supposed to?”

 

Pulling Louis outside of the classroom and into the hall, Zayn takes his place inside. “Just go to the staff room. He’s in there waiting.”

 

Louis scratches his head, sure that he’s missing something. Beginning his walk to the staffroom, Louis hears Zayn exaggeratedly whisper behind him, “Don’t embarrass yourself too much!”

 

Rolling his eyes at his friend, Louis continues his walk, only stopping on the way to quickly use the bathroom since he doesn’t know how long the meeting with the new student teacher will last. Once he has washed his hands, Louis walks out of the bathroom, absentmindedly picking at a loose thread on the sleeve of his jumper.

 

“Mate,” someone calls from down the hall.

 

Louis’ head snaps up at the voice, turning around to see his friend Liam standing outside of the gym doors. He waves and grins at him. “What’s up, Payno?”

 

Liam jogs over to where Louis is standing, smiling so big at Louis that his eyes are barely visible. Smiling back quizzically, Louis asks, “What’s got you so happy?”

 

Liam gasps exaggeratedly, punching Louis in the arm. Louis knows he didn’t mean to hit him hard on purpose, but since Liam is all muscled and Louis is not, the fake punch still manages to hurt Louis’ arm. “Shit, mate, go easy on me bony arms.”

 

Liam rolls his eyes and mutters, “Maybe if you worked out once in a while--”

 

“Shh, Payno, shh,” Louis chides, bringing a finger to Liam’s lips to silence him. Liam laughs, unable to stay fake-mad for long, and Louis pinches his cheek. “So tell me what the big news is!”

 

Liam throws his arm around Louis’ shoulder, walking with him to the other end of the hall--towards the staff room, in fact. “Remember that girl Sofia,” Liam starts. Not waiting for Louis’ response, though, he continues, “Well she finally agreed to go out with me!”

 

Louis laughs and squeezes Liam’s waist. “Ayyy! Get in, mate! That’s awesome.”

 

“I know right!?” Liam beams. “It’s been ages of begging but when I talked to her on Saturday night she finally said yes!”

 

“She probably just said that so she won’t have to deal with you anymore after this date,” Louis smirks. A couple of weeks prior, on a lads’ night, Liam walked into a bar and fell for one of the barmaids immediately. Zayn and Louis have been bothering him about it since, but Liam was so adamant about taking the beautiful girl out that he didn’t even mind the constant ribbing. Louis chuckled, shaking his head fondly--it’s really no surprise that she agreed to go out with him. You just can’t escape his charm.

 

Liam claps Louis on the back of his neck and hushes him before Louis can say anything else. “Anyway, me and her are going out Friday night, so do you think we can change lads’ night to Saturday?”

 

Louis sighs. “Dunno mate, ask Zayn. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it this week.”

 

“Why?” Liam pouts. “You never want to come out with us anymore, Lou.”

 

“I actually have a valid excuse this time,” Louis defends. “One of my uni friends is coming into town and he wants to hang out on Saturday.”

 

“A uni friend, huh?” Liam wiggles his eyebrows. “Why don’t you bring him with you?”

 

Rolling his eyes, Louis tells him, “Look. You boys don’t even know him, I dunno if he’ll be comfortable hanging out with you.”

 

“Okay, I’m not that stupid,” Liam counters. “No friend of yours could ever be so shy that he won’t meet new people. If you want some alone time, just tell me straight! I think it’s good that you’re interested in someone like that again after--”

 

“Liam, it’s really not like that--”

 

“Nick.”

 

There’s awkward silence for a couple of seconds. Then, Louis clears his throat and points to the staff room door. “I’ve got a meeting to go to, but I’ll text you about Saturday, okay?”

 

“Louis, wait--”

 

“See ya, Liam,” Louis calls without looking back, and pulling open the staff room door.

 

The sight in front of him shocks Louis so much that he feels like he has just done the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge again. Sitting in one of the uncomfortable chairs of the staff room, casually tapping away at his phone, is none other than Harry Styles--ex-popstar, and as of recent, recluse. The gorgeous man is sitting in the dimly lit room with unflattering light (seriously--selfies are impossible in there), managing to look like he just stepped out of a TV screen.

 

Fuck, Louis thinks. And, of course, he is so star-struck that he opens his mouth and says the first thing that comes to mind. “Are you lost?”

 

Harry’s head snaps up so fast that Louis wonders, momentarily, if such a sudden movement could cause whiplash. He hopes it not, because he surely cannot afford to pay Harry Styles--whose body is probably insured from head to toe--for any bodily harm he causes him. His thoughts are cut short though, because soon, Harry’s eyes meet his.

 

“I’m--” Harry starts, eyes still on Louis’ face.

 

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry I scared you,” Louis rambles, mortified. “I thought you would’ve heard me come in. Oh gosh, I’m so sorry, how’s your neck? That look like it hurt and--”

 

Harry, to Louis’ surprise, lets out a chuckle and stands up, walking towards Louis. Fuck, Louis thinks again. Am I in a coma or something? This feels so real, but it can’t be because Harry Styles--

 

Well. Harry Styles is extending a hand out to Louis--which Louis looks at, puzzled--before realizing he should probably shake it. His hand is so big, Louis thinks, amazed, as he shakes the popstar’s hand. And warm. His thoughts have distracted him from what Harry’s saying, so when Louis looks up at the other boy, he realizes that Harry is in the middle of a sentence.

 

“--and you’re Mr. Tomlinson, I’m guessing? It’s so great to meet you, thanks so much for doing this,” Harry says breathlessly.

 

“Please, call me Louis. If the four year olds call me Louis, then I’m sure you should too,” Louis smiles warmly. Then, wincing, Louis adds, “Also, what exactly am I doing?”

 

Harry’s eyebrows furrow as he tilts his head. “You know--the whole student teacher thing? I thought they would’ve told you…”

 

“Wait,” Louis stops the other man. “Hold on. You’re the new student teacher?”

 

Harry flushes a pretty pink color and pushes his hair back. “Erm, yeah. Is that a problem? I mean, I completely understand as to how that could be a problem, so. Just let me know if you, um. Want me to go.”

 

“Shit, no! No, don’t be silly,” Louis winces again. “That’s not what I meant at all, love. I just am a little shocked, is all. I can’t believe nobody told me about this!” Then, after considering the situation for a minute, Louis rolls his eyes and mutters almost inaudibly, “Bloody Zayn.”

 

“Sorry, what?” Harry asks, clearly not having understood the last part of Louis’ statement.

 

“Never mind.” Louis ushers the other man to the table he was sitting at before Louis came and almost indirectly-and-not-on-purpose broke his neck. They take a seat across from each other, and sit in silence until Louis finally musters up some courage to speak. At least his heart rate has calmed down a little. “Wow, so Harry Styles is a teacher! Who would’ve thought.”

 

Harry laughs nervously, playing with a button on his coat. “Yup, that’s a thing. And this is my placement, so.”

 

“Wonderful. Um, so, do you have any like. Questions or anything? For me,” Louis bites his lip, blushing. He can’t stop stuttering.

 

“No, I just was meant to come ‘round and meet the principal so I thought I should meet you too and make sure there weren’t going to be any problems. I also wanted to check out the school, it’s so cute,” Harry finishes, his mouth quirking up. “This is my first placement so I just wanted to be sure everything was fine. Which it is.”

 

“So when do you officially start?”

 

“Tomorrow, actually. I come in for half of the day tomorrow and Wednesday, and then on Thursday--if you think I’m ready--I can start coming in for the full day.”

 

“That sounds wonderful, Harry,” Louis beams, holding out his hand for another handshake, sensing that the conversation is over. “My beehive is so glad to have you!”

 

Harry giggles, “The pleasure is all mine.”

**Author's Note:**

> a bit of a posting schedule thingy will be on my tumblr, txmlinsxn :)  
> thanks so much for reading!! pls bear w me as i get back into the habit of writing narratives x


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